1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stereoscopic video processing device and method and a program and, more particularly, to a stereoscopic video processing device and method for constantly displaying a stereoscopic video which is natural and readily viewable, and a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
A person stereoscopically recognizes an object using the discrepancy (parallax) between an image captured by the right eye and the left eye. Eyeball rotation changes the convergence angle and a person recognizes the convergence angle as the distance to the object. The convergence angle is the intersection angle of sight lines.
Using the characteristics of the human eyes, if two two-dimensional images with parallax for the left and right eyes are prepared and are respectively projected to the left and right eyes, a person has the illusion of a distance from the convergence angle to the object and experiences a stereoscopic effect. Parallax is the deviation between the left-eye image and the right-eye image.
Display of the left-eye image and the right-eye image one by one is referred to as a stereoscopic image and the consecutive change between a plurality of left-eye and right-eye images is referred to as a stereoscopic video. A device for displaying these images is referred to as a stereoscopic video display device.
A stereoscopic video display device for alternately displaying a right-eye image and a left-eye image on a display with parallax using shutter glasses in which a pair of left and right lens units is alternately switched between a projective state and light shielding state and controlling the left and right lens units to be alternately switched in the projective state and the light shielding state in the timing of the switching between the right-eye image and the left-eye image such that the switching operation of the shutter glasses is unnecessary has been proposed (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-320734).
In a stereoscopic video display device, a two-dimensional object such as GUI or text may be displayed so as to overlap a stereoscopic video. In this case, two methods may be largely used. One method is a method of overlapping the two-dimensional object fixed on the stereoscopic video (Method A). Method A is mainly used in games or the like.
The other method is a method of divisionally displaying the display regions of the stereoscopic video and the two-dimensional object (Method B). Method B is mainly used in subtitles of movies.